Ten mistakes in "A Complete Unknown" Fact checking the film on Bob Dylan

Last Thursday, the new biopic about Bob Dylan, A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet and directed by James Mangold, who also made the Johnny Cash biopic with Joaquin Phoenix, officially hit Italian theatres. The film, premiered in Rome, arrives in Italy nearly a month after its release in the United States, where it was received quite favourably, particularly thanks to the masterful performances of the main actors involved. Supporting the Hollywood star of the moment is a stellar cast, from Edward Norton as Pete Seeger to an extraordinary Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, and Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo aka Suze Rotolo.

The screenplay follows a classic Hollywood style, which in some cases required cutting, stitching, and blending real and fictional events for narrative purposes. In fact, according to director Mangold in an interview with Rolling Stone, Dylan himself explicitly asked the director to include a completely fictional anecdote in the movie—which one is unclear, but we’ll get to that later. Despite some “poetic licenses” (which, let’s be clear, do not undermine the final result but have raised some eyebrows among the strictest Dylanologists), the narrative strives to be as realistic as possible. Any small cracks in reality don’t collapse the structure but instead allow excess light to seep through, adding to a rather solid and linear narrative based on Elijah Wald’s book The Day Bob Dylan Took the Electric Guitar. A Complete Unknown is a work of fiction, or rather, a highly successful fiction that captures the essence of someone who remains, even today, “a complete unknown” while being the greatest songwriter of the 20th century.

Here are the ten main scenes in the film that do not align with reality, according to expert Dylanologists:

The hospital scene with Woody Guthrie

The Scene: A similar treatment is given to Johnny Cash, a figure to whom director James Mangold is undoubtedly very attached, having previously directed the biographical film about him—Walk the Line (2005)—with Joaquin Phoenix as the “Man in Black.” In A Complete Unknown, Johnny Cash becomes a pen pal of Dylan, encouraging him to follow his own path without being influenced by others. Their relationship peaks in a scene in the parking lot just before Dylan’s final performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. After arguing with Seeger, Dylan steps outside for fresh air and encounters Cash, visibly drunk, unsuccessfully trying to exit the parking lot with his car. At that moment, Cash delivers an encouraging speech to Dylan, urging him not to let others dictate what music he should play.

The Reality: It is true that Dylan and Cash became pen pals. In fact, Mangold managed to recover part of their original correspondence through manager Jeff Rosen. «The very specific phrase where Johnny says, ‘Bob, drag some mud on the carpet,’ is literally what Johnny wrote to Bob in one of these letters,» revealed the director. Additionally, Cash had publicly defended Dylan’s decision to move away from protest songs, writing a letter to the renowned folk magazine Broadside in which he stated: «Don’t knock him until you’ve heard him,» «He’s almost brand new… SHUT UP!... AND LET HIM SING!» However, the pivotal scene is fictional: the Man in Black was not present at the Newport Festival in 1965, and that encouragement speech before going on stage never happened. Again, as with Pete Seeger’s case, this is more of an imaginative projection of their general closeness.

Dylan’s Final Performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965

The Scene: The film reaches its climax with the famous performance at the Newport Festival in 1965, when Dylan decides to break away from traditional folk music, right in front of what was considered his home, by delivering a first electric set instead of playing acoustically. The testimonies of that night vary so much that it’s almost impossible to separate myth from reality. In the film, the audience’s reaction is mixed, but the more hostile side seems to dominate. At one point, Pete Seeger stares intently at an axe, as the urban legend suggests he wanted to cut the amplification cables. However, there is one detail that has caused an uproar among nearly all Dylanologists worldwide: during the performance, someone in the audience distinctly shouts «Judas!» at Dylan. From the stage, Dylan responds, «I don’t believe you…» and then, addressing his band, instructs, «Play fucking loud!» The band then launches into an incendiary version of Like a Rolling Stone.

The Reality: Every Dylan fan knows that this legendary moment occurred during a concert in England, specifically at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester on May 17, 1966: it can be heard in the live recording “The Bootleg Series Vol 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The ‘Royal Albert Hall’ Concert. Nevertheless, the reasons why such a moment couldn’t be left out of this story, and why it makes sense to include it here, are clear and perfectly consistent with the narrative. Along with the cigarette scene with Suze Rotolo, it’s possible that this is the most intentional fictional episode by Dylan. The answer, like almost all others shrouding the songwriter’s mystery, is blowing in the wind, but his myth at sixty years old is still here. As Alessandro Carrera wrote: «Dylan hasn’t been singing for 60 years. He’s been singing for centuries.»